Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nóregs konungatal 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 762-3.

Þat verðr skylt, ef at skilum yrkja, greppum þeim, at gleði fyrða, allra helzt, ef eru færi virðar þeir, an verit hǫfðu. Þat verðr skylt, ef at skilum yrkja, greppum þeim, at gleði fyrða, allra helzt, ef eru færi virðar þeir, an verit hǫfðu. Þat verðr skylt þeim greppum, ef yrkja at skilum, at gleði fyrða, allra helzt, ef þeir virðar eru færi, an verit hǫfðu.

text prose order   It is the obligation of the poets, if they compose correctly, that they gladden people, above all, if those men are fewer than they have been.

notes: [6-8] ef þeir virðar eru færi, an verit hǫfðu ‘if those men are fewer than they have been’: The sense must be that the poet’s current audience is smaller than it was before. It is tempting to connect this rather obscure reference with the manndauðr mikill ‘great dying of people’, which, according to the Icel. annals, took place in 1192 (Storm 1888, s. a. 1192, p. 61). Between mid-October 1192 and the end of May 1193, more than 2000 people died of illness and hunger in the Northern Quarter of Iceland. Jón’s daughter, Solveig, also died in 1193. Alternatively, þeir virðar ‘those men’ could refer to the poets (þeim greppum, l. 3), and taken to mean that there were fewer poets who, at this time, were able to compose encomia. Hence it was the obligation of those poets who still possessed that skill, to entertain people.

editions: Skj [Anonyme digte og vers XII]: [2]. Nóregs konunga-tal 1 (AI, 579; BI, 575); Skald I, 278, NN §3128; Flat 1860-8, II, 520.

sources

GKS 1005 fol (Flat)

144va, 1 - 144va, 3